about zen in motion.

​​steve jobs and dan gerber: how i met master kobun

Zen in Motion draws from the training of Master Kobun who himself had trained at Eiheiji monastery in Fukui Prefecture, Japan. Kobun's master, Shibati, was a Buddhist scholar and head chair at Kyoto University.

Master Kobun helped to found the Tassajara monastery in San Francisco and taught the Roots of Zen, a program focused on on Indian Madhyamika and Yogachara philosopies, at Stanford University.

The Zen in Motion program extends Kobun’s teaching to the world. The program centers on in depth oriental meditation training and the core concepts of martial arts.

The Fateful Meet

Master Kobun and Neil Claremon crossed paths in the late 1980s while Kobun was visiting the US, with the help of an interesting network of individuals, including Dan Gerber and Steve Jobs.These two individuals would spend time at the San Francisco Zen center. Kobun was an honorary lecturer and teacher on occasion at this center. Gerber encouraged Kobun to spend more time in the US. Jobs offered to Kobun a large cabin on the edge of the Indian reservation in Taos Pueblo, New Mexico to use as a Zen center.

Neil had shown a mutual friend of his and Gerber's, Jim Harrison, the Zen style archery practice Neil was doing with Western type bows. Harrison mentioned this to Gerber, who was also a friend of Neil's.When Kobun learned of Neil's practice, Kobun invited Neil up to Taos to show him a demonstration of how the East and West can be blended in archery.Kobun and Neil ended up shooting together once a month for a year.When Neil was at the center, Kobun showed him all that he knew about Kyudo - Japanese archery -as an art and as a meditation.After Neil's Zen archery skills exceeded that of all of Kobun's students, the two practiced perfecting techniques for shooting off of a horse.

And the rest is history.

Who Is Neil Claremon

Neil Claremon is a student and teacher of Zen meditation. His first interest in Oriental thought originated from a Chinese literature course that he took at Cornell University. During that time, he read the book, Zen in the Art of Archery.

Born and raised in New York, Neil graduated from Cornell University and received a Masters degree from the University of Arizona. While working toward his Ph.D. at University of New York in Stonybrook, his first book of poetry, East by Southwest, was published by Simon & Schuster.

Because of his early work, he was asked to become the director of the National Endowment for the Arts' Southwest Poetry Program, where he had the opportunity to collaborate with prominent American and native American writers. He remained there for five years, and his experiences during that time--with native American and Mexican Indian cultures, and shamanism--profoundly influenced his future.

Neil wrote his acclaimed novel, Borderland, in 1975. As one of the first contemporary books to seriously consider alternative healing techniques, it promoted the New York Times to state that he was "breaking new literary terrain," while the Bloomsbury Review called him "a shaman and an original thinker."

In addition to his novels and books of poetry, he has written screen treatments and synposes of novels for film and television.

Neil, his partner Ruth, and his horse Chato balance their time between Westcheter, New York and Tucson, Arizona where he pursues his interest in astronomy. Zen, shamanism, myth, and healing continue to inspire his work and his life.